a href="http://adage.com/mediaworks/article.php?article_id=133038"/aNBC Universal is trimming about 500 jobs from its ranks, a testament to the rough waters media companies are encountering as consumers and advertisers start to cut spending. pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/oMJr6E5iaD0YLd8ro48iMhkEixQ/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/oMJr6E5iaD0YLd8ro48iMhkEixQ/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/adage/complete/~4/bpnOXI-119o" height="1" width="1"/

pIn UK, BBC may not now win the rights to the 2014 Winter Olympics the 2016 Summer Games after the a href="http://www.paidcontent.co.uk/entry/419-broadband-content-bits-livestation-on-iphone-olympics-rights-gaelic-ipl" title="International Olympic Committee turned down"International Olympic Committee turned down/a the European Broadcasting Union's usually successful bid on behalf of 75 public service broadcasters as too low. Now broadcasters will have to bid for rights individually, meaning commercial players like BSkyB (a href="http://finance.paidcontent.org/paidcontent?Page=QUOTETicker=BSY" class="ticker" title="BSY"NYSE: BSY/a) or ITV (LSE: ITV) could be in the running for the first time in 50 years, and so would other European media companies. What could it mean for the larger media industry... ? /p p -- bA Murdoch Olympics?/b As a href="http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/12/03/business/rights.php?page=2" title="IHT.com"IHT.com/a points out, News Corp-owned Sky Italia has already negotiated a commercial deal to show the Games from 2010 to 2016, while another Murdoch property, Fox Turkey, has bought the rights from 2014 to 2016. Although IOC rules state that the games must be free-to-air and available to at least 95 percent of the population, the presence of advertisers on commercial channels could lead to scheduling difficulties: US sports fans complained when NBC broadcast Beijing footage at prime-time instead of showing it live to maximise advertising revenue and a href="http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-video-of-bolts-latest-run-stays-online-as-fast-as-the-run-itself" title="failed to put clips online"failed to put clips online/a. Lots more a href="http://www.paidcontent.co.uk/entry/419-after-ebus-rights-failure-what-will-2016-olympics-look-like-online/" title="on PCUK, here"on PCUK, here/a. br / /p piCheck out the best business jobs in digital media. a href="http://jobs.paidcontent.org/"Go here/a for paidContent.org Job Board./i/p pa href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/pcorg?a=H3tqQr"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/pcorg?i=H3tqQr" border="0"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=sK8HO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=sK8HO" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=QWFrO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=QWFrO" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=UdKWo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=UdKWo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=HLXBO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=HLXBO" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=YZvzO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=YZvzO" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/pcorg/~4/474907411" height="1" width="1"/

pHere's the full text of the memo from MTVN (a href="http://finance.paidcontent.org/paidcontent?Page=QUOTETicker=VIA" class="ticker" title="VIA"NYSE: VIA/a) chairman and CEO Judy McGrath to her staff regarding layoffs and restructuring. It's very low on detail; as the memo says, some of the specifics will come out today: /p p I'm sure you've read Philippe and Tom's note, and I want to talk to you about what it means for MTV Networks – today and in the context of our overall mission and strategy going forward. /p p We all know there's a fundamental restructuring of our entire economy going on, and it extends beyond our borders. This is not just about MTVN, Viacom or even sister media companies – it's happening in every industry, all over the world.nbsp; This doesn't make it easier to say goodbye to people we love and respect, but it is the hard truth. In these tough times, we are responsible for sustaining and reinventing our company as thoughtfully as we can.nbsp; The changes we're making today are necessary, difficult, and the responsible way for us to move forward. /p p Here in the U.S., we're consolidating some groups, centralizing functions and outsourcing others, and aligning our resources across brands and platforms.nbsp; Specific details of the changes and how they affect you and your group will be communicated by your department heads today.nbsp; Our International organization continues to implement a new approach to structure and operations, which has been underway throughout the year. Further moves will be outlined by the leadership of each MTVNI region. /p p Change like this is so tough, to say the least.nbsp; But we must accept that we operate today in a state of constant evolution, constant change. /p p We believe the next chapter for each of us will be all about new possibilities, creativity and invention.nbsp; This is where our opportunity lies.nbsp; We can use this moment of global transformation to reassert our capacity to innovate, to inspire through creative and business excellence, to connect with our audience as powerfully as ever. We will be a leaner organization, but we will always be champions of new ideas, champions of all of our customers and brands, and leaders in new ways of doing business. /p p Everyone here contributes to MTVN and Viacom every single day and night without exception.nbsp; We hate to see dedicated friends and co-workers leave us, and we say goodbye with care, gratitude, support and respect. /p p Thank you all for your continued commitment to MTV Networks. /p p -- Judy /p piCheck out the best business jobs in digital media. a href="http://jobs.paidcontent.org/"Go here/a for paidContent.org Job Board./i/p pa href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/pcorg?a=ul81RC"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/pcorg?i=ul81RC" border="0"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=BjmNO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=BjmNO" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=rfGqO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=rfGqO" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=A0pHo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=A0pHo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=oHiqO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=oHiqO" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=h9hoO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=h9hoO" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/pcorg/~4/474749101" height="1" width="1"/

pimg alt="The New York Times" src="http://www.readwriteweb.com/imgNYT.gif" width="150" height="30" /At a time when the online world is continually seen as a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/internet_now_reliable.php"a more trusted source of news/a, mainstream media outlets find themselves forced into the position of becoming more and more open to keep their readers coming back. Removing "paid subscription" requirements that prevented everyday users from accessing content was one of the first cracks in the walled gardens. Opening APIs to other developers has been gaining favor. And now, another trend is coming to light: a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_era_of_walled_gardens_is_o.php"incorporating third-party content/a to supplement the original content the sites are offering. Today, the Gray Lady joined those ranks as the emThe New York Times/em launched a href="http://www.nytimes.com/timesextra"Times Extra/a, a view of its front page supplemented with content from other news sources and blogs./p p align="right"emSponsor/embr /a href='http://d.openx.org/ck.php?n=12813amp;cb=12813' target='_blank'img src='http://d.openx.org/avw.php?zoneid=861amp;cb=12813amp;n=12813' border='0' alt='' align="right" //a/p pThe third-party content will be gathered and ranked by Blogrunner, a news aggregator a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/new_york_times_adds_blogrunner_to_tech_frontpage.php"purchased by The Times Company/a in 2005. Up to eight supporting articles will be accessible - users may have to scroll to see all of them - from each front page article./p centerimg alt="Times Extra" src="http://www.readwriteweb.com/imgTimesExtra.jpg" width="600" height="452" //center pNow, this may seem like a relatively insignificant step for people who live and breathe the Web every day. But for traditional media companies, this sharing of column inches with other publications is not only difficult, it's something they have feared (emphasis is mine):/p p"The days when content sites were strongafraid/strong to link to other sites are over," said Marc Frons, chief technology officer for digital operations for The New York Times Company./p pSo it comes as little surprise that NYT is dipping its toe in the water rather cautiously. Rather than replacing the default front page, Times Extra will serve as an additional version of the NYT front page that users can activate by clicking a link. However, that version only remains active for 24 hours, at which point the user will have to activate the Times Extra front page, again./p pWhatever the case, this is a step in the right direction. A small step, but a good step nonetheless. Hopefully, the next move to be open will involve NYT sharing the metrics about how many users opt to use Times Extra and - given the options - where they choose to go for their news./p piDisclosure: ReadWriteWeb has an existing syndication arrangement with The New York Times/i/p stronga href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/times_extra_the_new_york_times.php#comments-open"Discuss/a/strong pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/4llFq9hOS88Vl_q532iJ5ve_Qo4/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/4llFq9hOS88Vl_q532iJ5ve_Qo4/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?a=pCJ8RuQp"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?d=1035" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?a=Veq0vG5z"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?a=CnFA5PeR"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?i=CnFA5PeR" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?a=s1hsFdqR"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?i=s1hsFdqR" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?a=ukXjWdeN"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?i=ukXjWdeN" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?a=MTqIo4ZP"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?d=52" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?a=YEDzCHQ9"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?d=1034" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/readwriteweb/~4/NvZ5YGhaybc" height="1" width="1"/